My Goals as a Game Designer in 2016

Specific: One of my goals for 2016 is to start learning how to use different shortcuts on Maya, the 3D engine. I feel that it’s very important for me to be up to date and extend my knowledge a little further with this engine, after all I’m pretty sure I will be using this program a lot to help me with my future projects I have in mind. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now. After I lost all of my programs from my old computer; I felt like I lost a lot of my hard work that I’ve created from previous projects, so I guess it made me feel as though I had to start all over from scratch. I think that I should take this incident more as an eye opener and see this as a fresh start to make newer creations/ innovative ideas. I want to learn how to be a bit faster on Maya since it does have a few areas of complexity, I would like to become a pro at it. I have previous recordings of when I learned how to use Maya, so I hope to use those as guidelines while I learn some new lessons on YouTube tutorials at home. I hope to start learning different ways around Maya in the month of April 2016, currently I have a lot things that are taking up my schedule in the month of March so I hope to start this journey in April.

Measurable: In April, I plan to give myself at least 3 tutorials a month and create small little projects that show off each new lesson that I’ve learned. This will help me know how much progress I’ve accomplished within a month and setting some time aside for some useful knowledge. I will post a blog up for every new lesson I’ve learned and post pictures of my little projects.

Attainable: I will start my tutorial lessons on the weekend so that I have time to create a small little project for me to work on during the week and I will work on it for an hour a day, each day.

Relevant: I believe as a game designer; I need to know both the structural (Maya) and the Photoshop art side of it all, so that I can put up different projects together in a visual way. I really would like to be able to make a lot of my own assets/ levels so that I can create a game from scratch.

Time-bound: At the end of each month; I hope to accomplish at least three projects and to have at least learned three different techniques per project. So if I start in April; my total should be 27 different projects/ blogs by the end of the year.

Specific: My second goal for 2016 is to play a variety of different games. I’m not just talking about video games in particular but perhaps some board games (analog), indie games, virtual reality, mobile, just games that are out of my comfort zone or something that I don’t usually play a lot of. This is really important to me because in order for me as a game designer to have an open mind to various types of games, I need to have more experiences in different genres/ platforms of gaming. I would like to start this month with a mobile game and as each month goes by, I would like to try out a different game genre that I don’t usually play. I would like to accomplish this goal by at least dedicating 30 minutes during my lunch hour at school to game playing.

Measureable: I will give myself personal goals to achieve every week for accomplishing a certain task in a game, and for every task I complete, I will reward myself with an achievement point, kind of like how Jane Mcgonigal did for her game “Superbetter”. I will also give myself 5 goals to accomplish by the end of the week; I may or may not complete every goal, but I will post the end of the week achievements I’ve acquired for the game I’ve played on Twitter and my blog. For example, one of my goals will be to play on a difficulty of “hard” or to play for an hour, if I do so, then I will an earn an achievement point that I will be able to post at the end of the week with a cool achievement title like “You’re Hardcore”.

Attainable: I will create a chart on my white board; every week I will put up new achievements on the board and I will put a green check mark next to the ones I have completed. This will make it a priority for me to complete the achievements before the week is over.

Relevant: I think that in order to make a good game; one must have different gaming experiences. This will help me with my creativity of different genres of games and give me more of a diverse perspective on various games.

Time-bound: At the end of each week; I will have achievements that I have to try to complete or finish most of them. I will also need to move onto another game by the end of the month, giving me plenty of time to either pass a game or play it long enough to understand its main premise.

Specific: My final goal for 2016 is to read more, as silly as it sounds, I need more information, and knowledge is something that gives a game designer more value. When we as game designers have familiarity on different subjects about our industry; it gives us the upper hand and so much wisdom that can be passed around to various generations of game developers. It is important to me that I set aside some time for me to learn more about the industry that I’m heading into, I really would like to explain different topics that can help others in understanding and having some enthusiasm for the gaming industry. In order for me to do any of this; I have to get all my facts straightened out and build my knowledge to pass down to others. I would like to accomplish some reading time at night before bed for at least 30 minutes. I would also like to start reading some books that any of my teachers may recommend me as well.

Measureable: Every month I would like to post up a blog summary of what I’ve read from different the books, like a recap. I would like to post one every month that is at least 1000 words or longer. So even though its once a month; I would still have a lot of work cut out for me at the end. I hope to have at least have read 8 or 9 books by the end of the year.

Attainable: Reading for 30 minutes at night will be my minimum, but reading more will be my challenge. So I will set a timer every time I read and I will record it in a notebook for personal records. At the end of the month, I should at least have one summary blog post of what I’ve read all month, this will really push me to read more than 30 minutes a night or substitute a day off and doubling it on another day (making it an hour reading instead of 30 minutes).

Relevant: I think this will help me in the future when I get to talk to other game designers and hold down a conversation about different topics that is occurring in the industry. This can also help me network with all kinds of people and receive great advice from others as well.

Time-bound: I have until the end of the month to finish a book and in order for me to accomplish that, I must read at least 30 minutes every night or I will fall behind and not make it to my monthly deadline to write my blog summary.